Today, most people don't just want to live long lives. They want to live long healthy lives, or as the old adage puts it, "to die younger, as old as possible. Most of us want to add life to years, not just years to life. We all know people who have...
Patients undergoing surgery often experience a loss of control, feeling more like victims than participants. Anxiety, fear of the unknown, fear of pain, dependency, uncertainty, and helplessness are common emotions which can intensify the perception...
By definition, "crisis" means that one's life is out of control. When faced with a health crisis, many people experience the information they receive about their condition -- and the way they receive it -- as making their feelings of being out of...
There is an accumulation of evidence that chronic hostility and chronic depression are major risk factors in heart disease. For many patients, it may be as important to learn and practice skills for managing these emotional states as it is to quit...
In spite of a growing body of research over the last decade documenting the economic burden of depression on individuals and on society, efforts to curb skyrocketing medical costs usually start with cuts in mental health services and benefits...
Most illnesses result from a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, behavioral, and psychosocial factors. Rarely is any one of these factors the sole cause of a disease. For example, many people exposed to germs do not develop illness...
You may assume that "imagination" means "not real." But the thoughts, words, and images that flow from your imagination can have very real physiological consequences for your body. Your brain often cannot distinguish whether you are imagining...
A study on aging found that for men the frequency of sexual intercourse was associated with lower death rates. For women the enjoyment of intercourse was associated with longer life. In "Sex May Prolong Life" David S. Sobel, M.D. shows us studies...
The decision to seek care is more determined by anxiety, worry, stress, lack of confidence, lack of information, job dissatisfaction, and unhealthy lifestyles than it is by the presence or absence of physical disease. In "Meditation Reduces Medical...
Patients often only communicate symptoms such as pain, wheezing, swelling, itching. Physicians often remain unaware of how the symptoms impact the patient?s life. Similar symptoms may have very different importance for different patients. It is...
David S. Sobel MD
